"Tee it Forward"

An interesting initiative has been proposed by both the PGA of America and the U.S.G.A. (United States Golf Association).  It’s called “Tee it Forward”, and it is a proposed movement that is in perfect alignment with our Green Committee recommendations in regard to playing from an appropriate set of tees.  For several years now I’ve written on this topic and I don’t wish to “beat a dead horse”, but this new approach is a little different so it’s worth mentioning.  In the past, the USGA has published the guidelines whereas golfers need to break 90 in order to step back to a longer set of tees, or that simply  they must play in under 4 hours.  They’re argument is that the game is much more fun if your taking less strokes and taking less time.  I personally couldn’t agree more.  Unfortunately, people are still not moving up so the new “Tee it Forward” initiative is now underway and it runs this month from the 5^th – 17^th.  For that time period you are encouraged to play from a set of tees that is aligned with your ability and it’s determined by your average driving distance.  They’ve created a chart that correlates driving distance and course yardage.  If you know your driving distance, you can look at this chart and see what length of course you should be playing to maximize your enjoyment of the game.  I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that according to this chart, your average driving distance should be 220 yards to play from our white tees, and 250 yards to play from our blue tees.  You can easily check your driving distance by deducting the yardage of your shot into the green following your tee shot, from the overall yardage of the hole.  The Green Committee embraces this initiative and encourages all of you to check your average driving distance to see if your playing from an appropriate set of tees.  If you find that you should move up, give it a try this month from the 5^th – 17^th.  Click here for more details about the "Tee it Forward" initiative and the complete chart which correlates driving distance with recommended 18-Hole yardages.